13 years ago, in Tiananmen Square

It was 1995, when she and some 20 other teachers took a trip to Beijing on an educational tour organized by her college. It was her first trip to Beijing, and doubtless the first for many of her colleagues.

She was in Tiananmen Square, where just six years earlier her government had opened fire on unarmed student protesters, when she saw it.

Her first KFC.

Sitting in the foreign teacher’s office for her speaking exam at the end of an oral English course for faculty, Joan recalls the meal 13 years later.

“It was in 1995,” she tells me. “I was in Tiananmen Square, and I was introduced to KFC for the first time.”

She remembers it the way one remembers an important moment in one’s life. The way I might remember my first night market in Thailand or the first time I walked into a little restaurant in China and clumsily attempted an order.

Thirteen years from now, I might tell someone about the time I walked into a little place in Ban Phe and ended up with a whole fish floating in a bowl of clear broth. Or my first plate of eel at the airport in Tokyo. Or the time I tried pig brains at a hot-pot place in Yangzhou.

But to Joan, who would think nothing of pig brains or eel or a bowl of fish soup, an overpriced plate of fried chicken was the most exotic meal she could ask for.

This all seems very silly to an American, of course. But put yourself in Joan’s position.

For the past 35 years, you have eaten nothing but Chinese food. You’ve read about this place on the other side of the world, watched a number of foreign films about it, and basically built it up in your mind as the most exciting and wonderful place in the world. A place where everyone is rich and attractive, the women sleep with everyone they meet (a lot of people in China and Thailand believe this about American girls, probably because of the movies), and all of the important decisions in the world are made.

Now imagine that you have the opportunity, for the first time in your life, to taste the food that people eat in this place. A meal from a real American restaurant!

For anyone old enough to remember a China without the Western fast-food chain, which can now be found in all the major cities here, that is what it felt like to walk into a KFC for the first time.

Even today, the American fast-food chain holds a position of honor in the Chinese restaurant scene. A meal at McDonald’s or KFC will cost you more than 20 yuan, which makes it one of the pricier dining options in a city like Yangzhou, where the equivalent Chinese dish won’t cost you more than 7-10 yuan. A Pizza Hut qualifies as high-end dining in China, with meals going for more than 50 yuan. When one enters a Pizza Hut here, one may be surprised to find a sign that reads, “Please wait to be seated.” And sure enough, a hostess will appear to seat your party.

You will always find a McDonald’s, KFC or Pizza Hut at the trendiest and swankiest locales in any Chinese city. In Yangzhou, for example, the choice location in town would have to be the area around the traffic circle at the head of Wenchang Road, which marks the center of the city’s downtown commercial district. Sure enough, occupying two of the most visible addresses in town, just opposite the famed circle, are a Pizza Hut and a KFC.

And though a meal will cost you three times the price of a Chinese equivalent, you won’t find an empty McDonald’s in China. I’ve walked past quite a few in Yangzhou, Nanjing, and Shanghai now and I haven’t found one that wasn’t full.

It’s really something in a country where people will argue over a two-dollar cab ride. It’s still hard to believe, as an American, but Joan offers three reasons why she continues to hold the food at KFC in such high regard.